World Health Organization Warns Of Gonorrhea Strain Resistant To Antibiotics

GENEVA – A strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to the disease’s only remaining treatment, cephalosporin antibiotics, has officials at the World Health Organization warning doctors around the world to step up their efforts to stop the disease.

The U.N. health agency said Wednesday it is urging governments and doctors to increase their surveillance efforts for the antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection that can cause inflammation, infertility, pregnancy complications and, in extreme cases, lead to maternal death. Babies born to mothers with gonorrhea have a 50 percent chance of developing eye infections that may cause blindness.

“This organism has basically been developing resistance against every medication we’ve thrown at it,” said Dr. Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan, a scientist in the WHO’s department of sexually transmitted diseases. This includes a group of antibiotics called cephalosporins that are currently considered the last line of treatment.

“In a couple of years it will have become resistant to every treatment option we have available now,” she told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of WHO’s public announcement on its `global action plan’ to combat the disease.